“In the new era of always-connected consumers – what Forrester calls The Age Of The Customer – customer experience is so critical that I predict it will become the #1 priority for CIOs. In part because unhappy customers have the power to alter the course of any organization, as Netflix CEO Reed Hastings discovered in 2011, when his US customers forced him into an about-turn on his strategy to split movies-by-mail from online streaming”.

“Our research suggests CIOs and IT leaders are critical players in winning the customer experience game. And IT leaders need to understand their team’s role in customer experience. But to win, IT can’t simply pay lip service to customer experience. IT leaders must consider it a very real business discipline and see it as one of the most important roles of the technology team”.

Nigel Fenwick – LINK

You’re Doing Customer Experience Innovation Wrong

“Customer experience innovation happens at the intersection of consumer needs, business model, and brand. Companies that neglect one or more pieces of this innovation puzzle will be forever relegated to customer experience mediocrity, on par with throngs of other companies desperate to fix their experience issues and retain customers”. Kerry Bodine – LINK

My own favourite online customer experience is Amazon. I select a Kindle title and order with 1 click. I receive an email order confirmation in < 1 min and the eBook is available to download to my iPad. Frictionless.

I would call out Apple for a good in-store experience. Apple employees follow a 5 step approach to customer service:

Approach

Probe

Present

Listen

End with a fond farewell

Finally – a word from Jeannie Walters who is the Chief Customer Experience Investigator™ and founder of 360Connext

background noise level decreases, definitely worth listening to her Point of View